Can the U.S. win a World Cup before England wins another?

The U.S. pulled off one of the World Cup's biggest and most famous upsets on June 28, 1950, with a 1-0 triumph over heavily favored England. Joe Gaetjens, the author of the match's only goal, was carried off by cheering fans. (AP file)

Former Sheffield United and Leeds United manager Kevin Blackwell, who has toured the world in the past in search of knowledge that might help him become a better soccer coach, is in town evaluating the Dynamo operation.

As a guest of Dynamo president Chris Canetti, Blackwell has been at the Dynamo’s last two training sessions. He’ll be in Houston through Monday.

England lifted its only World Cup trophy at home in 1966. The U.S.' best finish was a semifinal appearance in the first World Cup, held in 1930. (AP file)

I had a chance to visit with Blackwell, and I was a bit surprised at his assessment of U.S. Soccer. Heck, to be honest, I was stunned to hear him say that in the future, the U.S might come closer to winning a World Cup than England.

“I would arguably say that if they keep moving forward as they have been I could see the USA coming close to winning the World Cup, maybe sooner than England,” he said. “And that’s a sad thing for me to say.”

The Luton, England, native seems impressed with the progress the U.S. has made in soccer.

“There’s a lot of people around the world looking at the MLS,” he said. “Right now we feel – well, I feel – that it’s starting to now get it’s act together and starting to become a force. We’re seeing in the UK some Americans.”

Yeah, but can you really envision the U.S. winning a World Cup? And if you’ve been listening to new U.S. national team coach Jurgen Klinsmann, you might find a similar theme.

“I look at the raw talent that’s here,” Blackwell said. “The raw talent is here. You come to Houston, and there’s 5 million people. There’s a big Hispanic population who have got football in their blood. The ingredients are there.

“The weather’s here, the facilities are here. And the one thing that has always impressed me about the Americans is that they got a desire to be winners. Believe you me, if you’ve got that desire and you’ve got the wherewithal generally you succeed. So I do see them succeeding.”

Here’s hoping Blackwell is correct.

How long do you think before the U.S. at least reaches a World Cup semifinal?

Not that a deal is done, do you forgive the players, owners for the labor mess this off-season?

7 Responses

I see some validity in what he says about USA being closer than England. I don’t really know that USA is that close to a World Cup but it is a sign of how overrated England is. The idea that England are underachievers is really the opposite. When you look at the population (51 million) and that they’ve never really kept up with what’s been the modern style of soccer in Europe as well as blocking out the middle class from soccer (btw all of these are taken from the book Soccernomics) you can see why England aren’t all that successful apart from qualifying matches. The main disadvantage that the USA has very little experience compared to England. But we’re moving in the right direction!

I voted for the US. Not because I think we’re close to winning a WC anytime soon. I just don’t think England will either. They have good personnel, but they just seem to be perennial underachievers. And USA has the the potential (population and resources) to eventually compete with the best as Blackwell points out… It’ll take time but we’ll see…

Although Klinsmann helps the US to get closer, we are nowhere near reaching a World Cup semi-final or final. First, we have to improve to the point that we can consistently beat Mexico and that includes road games. We have a long way to climb from being a 30 something ranked team by FIFA to being consistently in the top 10. England’s players are good enough that they have a legitimate chance of winning each World Cup. We have no depth on our bench. While we are improving, we are still a long ways off.